STARBUCKS CORPORATION

Starbucks Corporation

Starbucks Corporation

Brief History

Starbucks Corporation is the ranked number one in the coffee retailer. Starbucks own about 9000 coffee shops in different countries. Starbucks president and CEO Mr. Howard Shultz, follow a philosophy that a company should value its employees so that employees will value its customer. Although the first Starbucks opened in 1971 it wasn't until the 1990s that the company became the iconic coffee symbol of America. Starbucks' popularity exploded alongside a changing generation of young Americans who were on the move and connected to the world-wide-web, while yearning for bigger and better, no matter the cost. This generation quickly became known as the “Starbucks Generation” and now, a decade later; it's spilling over into a thriving China. Starbucks entered China in 1999 and has now made it their number one target for growth (Starbucks Annual Report, 2007).

Discussion of Industry

The importation of Italian coffee culture, the freedom for customers to hang out in the premises for as long as they want, and even the very ubiquity of Starbucks makes it a close response to the idealized notion of an Italian bar, the community pub that local people visit informally to reinforce existing relationships and create new ones. In fact, it been theorized that the popularity of Starbucks has resulted from its ability to supply, along with coffee, a “third space” between the isolation of the suburban home and a workplace that no longer provides security and predictable socialization of the past. This third space, made safe by the brand-name assurance mainstream America seeks for and projected into the global network by the free Wi-Fi Internet connection that allows customers to continue to work and shop, incorporates the coffeehouse cultures pre-Starbucks and effectively readapts them to the present social environment.

In this café, the waitress might engage with “no-collar” workers (i.e., no office dress code; the ease of the T-shirt, collar free, favored by cultural workers and IT workers), who in turn will be socializing or talking business with their clients. If self-employed, they have no need for an office—and the café effectively functions as an appropriately informal meeting place for those who work in industries that have no more need of the formal spaces (offices, conference rooms) of their predecessors. The no-collar worker might be spending the afternoon away from the office, dealing with e-mails from the café rather than the workplace. In this environment, he or she would be more inclined to work harder and less inclined to compensate the loss of freedom associated with a nine-to-five regime by spending swaths of time chatting with colleagues at the water cooler or surreptitiously texting friends. For the worker, the absence of the boss lowers the intensity of the work experience, and so, in addition to answering e-mails, they may use social networking sites unimpeded and text freely (Karen, 2007).

Howard Schultz, the long time Starbucks CEO, argues coffee shops offer a luxury good at an easily accessible price. This notion of the coffeehouse as a democratically inclusive establishment is nothing ...